A Core Values Primer

Secrets of Core Values Wording

You have got to love off the wall thinkers.  They make life so entertaining.  Case in point.  Martin Kihn, a contributor to the magazine Fast Company did some research on core values.  His findings: 

  1. Team Players are losers.

In the research of 21 companies, he found 41 basic core values.  Of those, the core core values were:

Teamwork

Excellence

Integrity

Respect

And at #1 . . . Customer Service

The interesting wrinkle?   Those that used any of these 5 in their core values underperformed the S&P by 18%.  The biggest losers were those that embraced teamwork, whose stocks were 30% lower than the market.

  1. Good is Good is Bad

The companies with the best performance had two values that put them 68% higher than everyone else.  Citizenship and Environmental Stewardship.  Unfortunately the two companies that had these values had their stock soar after they were charged with either fraud (for citizenship) or. . . . well ExxonMobil (for environmental). 

  1. More words – More value

The more values a company had, the better their stock performance was.  Also, those that had two word values (i.e. – shareholder value) did even better.  Of course Berkshire Hathaway’s core values are 5,000 words long, and they beat the S&P by 65%. 

Lessons to be learned.  It seriously looks like those who over communicate their values (longer, more words) pass on the firm insights on how to make decisions, guide the ship, etc. 

Recently I had a chance to look at several team development models.  They seem to be short in drawing out and determining what should be the core values.  The best way I have seen to determine core values is to look at an organizations history.   We work with groups on graphically getting a snapshot of their past and what that means to them for today, or what they “value”..  Consistently they consider this the most mind opening exercise they do in a day of Strategic Planning.  Could it be that we are all indeed, so close to the forest we can’t see the trees?  We are so busy being who we are that we don’t realize what we are and what we stand for.

What are your core values?  Answer that and become for effective in your life.

 

About Kordell Norton - The Top Line Guy

Your organization has a strong interest in the "top line" for growth. As a consultant, speaker, author, Kordell Norton works with corporate, association, education and government organizations who want to focus on branding, sales, marketing, strategic planning/leadership, team building, and customer service.

Kordell was an executive with several multi-billion dollar corporations with executive suite positions in sales, HR, marketing and call centers. As a certified Graphic Facilitator, he uses highly visual processes, along with humor, and entertaining methods for powerful, high energy presentations.

Author of Throwing Gas on the Fire - creating drastic change in Sales and Marketing

He can be reached at (330) 405-1950 or at kordell@kordellnorton.com or at his website -  www.KordellNorton.com